Bitcoin Blockchain Data Might Be Housing Child Porn, Study Finds
Besides their seemingly enormous potential for profit by everyday investors, cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks also have a seedier appeal as well. The anonymity provided by decentralized networks has enticed criminals of various sorts; some currencies and exchanges have been plagued by hacks and other nefarious activity. Now, a report by Cointelegraph suggests that a study from Germany's Goethe and Aachen Universities has unearthed eight files that show or link to sexual content, hidden within the blockchain for bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency. There have been allegations that some of these image might link to child pornography, but Bitcoin Core developer Peter Todd told Cointelegraph that any links to child porn sites were found to be dead links.
Because of the decentralized nature of bitcoin and the structure of the blockchain which undergirds it, determining ownership and responsibility for the illegal content is difficult, at best. Ultimately, the report suggests, «any user that has a bitcoin full node is in possession of data that could potentially lead to criminal prosecution.» A number of media outlets have moved quickly to criticize the broader blockchain community for this content. Nonetheless, Coin Telegraph suggests that there are important technical considerations regarding the structure of the blockchain to keep in mind.
Todd commented on questions of ownership of the material and next steps. He suggested that the risk of the average user accessing the particular material in question is small, suggesting that «you need special decoding tools to be able to extract the data and make sense of it.»
Todd also acknowledges that the bitcoin protocol was not built to publish data. As he told
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